Architecture & Art Library Blog

The UH Libraries is now accepting artwork from current UH students for its third annual Student Art Exhibit. Artwork may be submitted at both the M.D. Anderson Library (room 220) and the Architecture and Art Library. This is a competitive exhibit, juried by representatives from local museums, art galleries, and the UH School of Art faculty. Work will be accepted through January 29th, 2010.

Submission requirements:

2D in any medium: Ready to hang with wires and brackets or on foam core, not to exceed 5’x5′, 5 pounds, or extend more than 4 inches from the wall.

Sculpture: Pedestal required, no more than 20 pounds for work and pedestal combined. Must fit in library elevator.

Congratulations to Professors Susan Rogers and Rafael Longoria, who have won the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) 2009-10 ACSA Collaborative Practice Award for their project Collaborative Community Design Initiative.

For reasons that have yet to be determined, remote access to the databases became unavailable this past weekend. After much troubleshooting, the only way to resolve the issue was to change the authentication system from PeopleSoft to CougarNet. The decision to do this at this point in the semester was made only because of the otherwise complete loss of remote access. Library IT is still investigating the problem.

With this change, some databases are working fine; others may first give a blank screen and require refreshing the screen to get access; some may not work at all.

The William R. Jenkins Architecture and Art Library is now on Facebook. The library staff will post news, research tips, and discussion topics. Students, faculty members, and other researchers are invited to participate in online discussions and recommend helpful resources.

The William R. Jenkins Architecture and Art Library will begin beta-testing a new catalog interface next week. It functions exactly like the existing interface, but its look will be more closely integrated with the University of Houston websites. You can begin using it now by visiting http://library.uh.edu:2082/search/X. The catalog search screen and results will be in the center of the page. The search tabs are at left and other helpful information is at right. If you have any feedback, complements, or complaints, please send them to archlib@mail.uh.edu. We’ll gather the information and pass it on to our library system programmers.

The University of Houston, which has previously provided access to only the Texas maps, has now purchased Digital Sanborn Maps for all states.

Digital Sanborn Maps, 1867-1970 provides academic and public libraries digital access to more than 660,000 large-scale maps of more than 12,000 American towns and cities. Users have the ability to easily manipulate the maps, magnify and zoom in on specific sections, and layer maps from different years.

Sanborn fire insurance maps are the most frequently consulted maps in both public and academic libraries. Sanborn maps are valuable historical tools for urban specialists, social historians, architects, geographers, genealogists, local historians, planners, environmentalists and anyone who wants to learn about the history, growth, and development of American cities, towns, and neighborhoods. They are large-scale plans containing data that can be used to estimate the potential risk for urban structures. This includes information such as the outline of each building, the size, shape and construction materials, heights, and function of structures, location of windows and doors. The maps also give street names, street and sidewalk widths, property boundaries, building use, and house and block numbers. Seven or eight different editions represent some areas.

Library customers may access the maps at http:sanborn.umi.com or by selecting Digital Sanborn Maps from the “Architecture Databases” list on the William R. Jenkins Architecture and Art Library homepage.

Hundreds of College of Architecture undergraduate theses, mostly written in the 1970’s, are now cataloged and searchable in the University of Houston Libraries online catalog (library.uh.edu). This collection contains valuable information about Houston history and architectural trends. Research subjects and proposed projects include the Riverside General Hospital, Houston’s Fourth and Sixth Ward, River Oaks Garden Apartments, and South Texas Junior College. The thesis collection may not be checked out, but may be used in the library. Copiers and a scanner are available.